Himanta Biswa Sarma presents Assam's first E-Budget
Guwahati, Mar 12 (IBNS): Assam Finance Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday presented the state's first Digital Budget or E-Budget for the FY 2018-19 at the Assam Legislative Assembly in Guwahati.
Himanta tabled the E-Budget instead of the conventional paper based.
For the first time in Assam, the state budget was presented in the electronic format.
The budget enabled Tablet PCs were distributed among the Assam legislators and also it went LIVE on Twitter and Facebook.
Assam is second state in the country after Andhra Pradesh to present the state budget in an electronic format.
The BJP-led Assam government has taken a new scheme named Axom Adarxo Gram Yojana, taking inspiration from the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, conceived by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In his budget speech, the Assam Finance Minister said that Axom Adarxo Gram Yojana, a scheme which envisages a creation of model villages where good quality public services in terms of sanitation facilities, roads, drainage, drinking water, school, healthcare institutions will be provided on incremental basis to all the citizens, and provide Rs 5 crore to each model village over the next 3 years and in FY 2018-19.
Presenting Rs 2149.04 crore deficit Budget for the state for 2018-19, the Assam Finance Minister also proposed another new scheme in the budget for development of each Legislative constituency.
"Rs 500 crore is allocated for the new scheme Uttoron - State government signature projects for Legislative constituencies," Himanta Biswa Sarma said in his budget speech.
On the other hand, the Assam Finance minister proposed Rs 200 crore for a programme Axom Mala in line with Bharat Mala in the state budget for the FY 2018-19 for reconstruction and maintenance of roads and rehabilitation of RCC bridges.
The Budget estimates of 2018-19 show a receipt Rs 90,673.42 crore under Consolidated Fund of the state. Out of this Rs 74,118.50 crore is on Revenue Account and the remaining Rs 16,554.92 crore is under Capital Account.
After adding the receipt of Rs 2,90,914.84 crore under Public Account and Rs 100 crore under Contigency Fund, the aggregate Receipts amount to Rs 3,81,688.26 crore and total aggregate expenditure is estimated 3,80,688.27 crore. The opening deficit of Rs 3149.04 crore will lead to a Budget deficit of Rs 2149.04 crore.
Reacting about the state budget, former Assam Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi said that there are lot of promises in the budget and it is the nature of the BJP-led government and Prime Minister Modi also.
"In last two budgets, they had made lot of promises but what about the implementation," he said.
On the other hand, Assam Finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that this budget has several dimensions.
"We are trying to create capital assets. So, we have declared very important bridges over river Brahmaputra. We have emphasised to develop the rural areas in the state," Himanta said.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath, Image: Himanta Biswa Sarma Twitter page)
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